ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to show how International Monetary Fund (IMF) funding renders the obstacles to healthcare and promotion more, rather than less, problematical. Consider, for instance, the social position of women, not only or even particularly in Africa, but in many third-world countries. It argues that it is possible to empower women, but that prevention programmes have not taken into account the cultural, social and economic constraints, and the male gender roles imposed on most African women, which obstruct the empowerment process. After South Africa, India has the most people living with human immunodeficiency virus or acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) of any country, an estimated 3.97 million as of the end of 2001, and rising. As one of many third-world nations, and as one among several in Africa itself, Zimbabwe was in no position to dictate to either the IMF or the first-world banks. There are some cultural beliefs that put women more at risk of HIV infection.
